This wasn't as good as I hoped it would be.Characters: C+I'm not too sure why he's a bestselling author. Nothing personal, I just can't see it. The characters were dry for the most part with no character development, and it was hard to get a good grasp on them. Unless you call Ali's mood switching development, where she turned from relatively normal nice to mean and bossy. I can't name when she started being mean, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. Maybe it was arrogance because she was getting powers, but still. I couldn't really fall in love with any of the characters, because they seemed flat. Like, "Ali smiled. She crossed the street." Instead of something like, "Ali smiled, because Steve reminded her of her little brother. She crossed the street, waving goodbye, heart soft." You know, little things that really flesh a character out? The emotions and feelings. I'm not sure if that makes sense. Maybe I'm used to a certain kind of writing or characters. I do know they didn't really act thirteen. Not that I don't believe thirteen year olds can do amazing things, it's just the way they were written in this - I can't see Ali doing any of that. Pike had pretty much every stereotype: Karl, the almost bad boy, Cindy, the fiery friend who borders on rude most times, Steve, the fat kid with not a bad bone in his body. Paddy, a eccentric something (aunt?). Ali just seemed like a character, flat. Not a person, or even a stereotype I hate to be harsh, but a story can only go so far with characters like this. The only character that made me laugh at his relative originality was Farble. Especially when they found out his real name; I laughed aloud there. XDPlot: B+Straight forward enough. Somewhat interesting, but there weren't too many twists. The only part interesting for me was when Ali was taking the space and air test. I didn't know what to expect there. The plot was well paced, but could've been handled better to keep us on our toes. I'm pretty sure that this was written for younger kids, just judging by the characters age and the writing. But even younger kids can have a faster paced book. They might even need one because of short attention spans or whatever. I could name most everything that would happen. (SPOILERS) That she'd get the army to go back by talking, not fighting. That it was Karl, not Steve, who was bad. That Drugle would get away. That her mom was alive. (END SPOILERS)I'm still being harsh. I really don't like doing that. Maybe I've read too many books and just know how a plot will fall. Or maybe I'm giving myself too much credit. *shrugs* Don't get me wrong, the book wasn't awful, just somewhat dry. It could've been a lot more exciting.Writing: CI gave an example of the writing style when I wrote about characters above. It was easy reading, and not too witty (save when they were naming Farble). The writing covered all the bases, but it didn't really make the world seem real. Not sure if that makes sense.Three stars.(If you think this entire review should have a spoiler alert on it, please comment. But I think I only had one spoiler area.)
I'm posting this unchanged for all three books of the series, because I believe potential readers should be aware that the series is incomplete:"Ali's story will continue in the next book in the series, Nemi" (last line of The Yanti.)According to a Pike fan site (http://christopherpikefanclub.com/pag..."This is Pike[....] Nemi will be published when the Alosha movie is released. I don't control the publication of the book, Tor does. And unless the movie comes out, they won't be inspired enough to continue the series. So don't be upset I didn't finish the series. I have finished it -- the conclusion of the tale is alive and well on my computer hard-drive." Posted in News on August 10, 2012 by webmasternemiThe first three books are great, but there are many threads left for the last book, being held ransom to the Alosha movie, apparently optioned by Alcon Entertainment, but not listed in IMDB. It seems as if Tor, who own the rights, aren't interested in readers that aren't drawn in by a movie connection. I'm not sure, given that opinion, what leverage we have, but feel free to write to Tor or Macmillan, who publishes Tor-Forge books.I'd love to unreservedly recommend all theses books; the characterizations are wonderful, the plot is twisted enough without exiting the universe Pike created, and they are well-written. Unfortunately, since we can't read the ending...I just hope that Mr. Pike retrieves his rights if Tor continues to refuse to publish, so we can enjoy the series as he intended.
What do You think about Alosha (2005)?
I can't believe I'm giving this book only 2 stars. A Christopher Pike novel?! Suffice to say I was a bit disappointed.Maybe I was just expecting more. I was expecting something along the lines of Pike's other adult novels. But Barnes & Noble placed this book in their YA section while my library did not.A lot of stuff was rather unbelievable - aside from it being a fantasy novel. It features a bunch of 13-year-olds, a leprechaun and a troll trying to save the world from an all-out war with elementals ("mysterious creatures who live in a neighboring dimension").If you get past the part where they're all 13 and off to save the world (the elementals don't necessarily wait till you're of age before attacking - gotta strike while the iron's hot, you know) - what 13-year-olds do you know that act this way? It was unrealistic - sort of a Dawson's Creek phenomenon - acting much older and sophisticated than their age. But at other times, they acted more their age. *wrinkles nose* It was annoying.As a few reviewers on Amazon have noted, the book lacked 'witty dialogue, visceral description, and interesting characters.'The storyline wasn't bad. This book is the first in a trilogy and yes, I'll probably be reading the other two as well.I dunno, maybe I was looking for complexity when I should have been happy with simplicity.Note: The floating (upside-down) island thing [reference: cover] gave me a crazy case of deja vu. I recall having a dream similar to that. Freaky.
—Preeti
The book is okay. My main problem is that the characters do not act or talk as if they are 13. That said, the plot is alright. The main character is a fanatic environmentalist, and while it's clear the author shares many of these view, he is not afraid to point out the flaws in this thinking. Ali, the protagonist, comes to the understanding by the end of the book that human life is much more important than saving a patch of land. I will probably read the other books in this series, just to see where the author goes with this.
—Hester Griffith
This book kind of started out slow, and not joking either, considering they don't even start out heading to where they're going to go until page 115. Otherwise before that, they're mostly milling around town and not really knowing what to do for that many pages. Besides that, I liked the book, aside from the part where you felt that the characters were at times 95 years old going on 1,000(mostly due to the lack of contractions in the book). What 13 year old is going to say, "You are not going to do that, it is not right." Unnatural. Then at other times, the characters were like little babies(or maybe lined up to be little babies by Pike, I don't know). The character name of "Fart" came up, and I can only see a three year old laughing at it. All in all, it left me with questions unanswered, the big one being about her mother. I think that's enough of a reason to get the second book, and hope for a good inbetween with them acting like old people and babies with rattles.
—Kim
